The present invention relates to a film deposition processing device, specifically to a film deposition processing device for supplying a processing gas to an object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer or others, to form a thin film on the surface of the object.
Generally in fabricating semiconductor devices, to form integrated circuits on the surfaces of semiconductor wafers to be processed (hereinafter called "wafers") steps of forming thin films on the surfaces of the wafers are conducted by sputtering devices and CVD devices.
In such thin film forming, it is necessary to uniformly grow a thin film on the surface of a wafer where that the entire surface is uniformly heated to a required temperature and retained at the temperature, and then processing gases are fed to the wafer. It is also necessary that instruments, etc. disposed in the processing vessel can be repaired or replaced from the outside to facilitate maintenance and inspection of the film deposition processing device.
The conventional film deposition processing device of this kind mainly comprises, as shown in FIG. 19, a processing chamber 10 having the upper surface opened, where it receives a wafer W at a set position, a cap 20 for opening and closing the opening 11 of the processing chamber 10, and heating means 30, e.g., a heating lamp or others, disposed below the processing chamber 10. A processing gas feeding port 21 is formed in the center of the cap 20 which is connected to processing gas feeding means through a flexible tube 60. An exhaust port 12 is formed in a side of the processing chamber 10. The interior of the processing chamber 10 is evacuated by exhaust means (not shown) connected to the exhaust port 12. In forming a thin film on a wafer by the conventional film deposition processing device of such structure, the interior of the processing chamber is heated to a required temperature by the heating means 30 with the wafer W loaded into the processing chamber 10 by a carrier arm (not shown) supported by a support pin 13, while processing gases from the processing gas feeding means are fed onto the wafer W through the processing gases feeding port 21, so as to conduct film deposition processing. When the processing is over, the feeding of the processing gases, and the heating by the heating means 30 are stopped, the processing gases are exhausted from the processing chamber 10, and the wafer W is unloaded out of the processing chamber 10. After the wafer W is unloaded out of the processing chamber 10, a purging gas is fed into the processing chamber 10 in place of the processing gases to remove components of the processing gases which have stayed on the interior of the processing chamber during the film deposition processing, and the interior of the processing chamber 10 is always maintained in its optimum condition. When the film deposition processing device is repaired or inspected, the cap 20 is swung upward by means of a hinge or others to open the opening 11 of the processing chamber to repair or inspect instruments, etc. in the processing chamber 10.
But the conventional film deposition processing device of such structure has a risk. That is, for maintenance, such as repairs, inspections, etc., of the device the cap 20 is swung to open the opening 11 of the processing chamber 10, and every time the cap is swung open, the flexible tube 60 interconnecting the processing gases feeding port 21 of the cap 20 and the processing gases feeding means is bent. Repeated opening and closure of the cap 20 will generate particles from the inside of the flexible tube, and the particles will be scattered onto the wafer W to pollute the wafer W. Another risk is that repeated opening and closure will deform and crack the flexible tube 60 and leak the processing gases.
The conventional film deposition processing device of such structure has a transfer pin 13d in addition to the support pin 13c on the side of the underside of the wafer W. The underside of the wafer W is heated with radiation from the heating means 30 which is blocked by the support pin 13c and the transfer pin 13d. A problem with this is that the wafer W has an accordingly nonuniform temperature distribution as shown in FIG. 21, and a film formed on the surface of the wafer W has a nonuniform thickness. It is needed that the support pin 13c and the transfer pin 13d are positioned not to interfere with each other for efficient transfer of the wafer W.